Todd Sones is a Golf Digest Top 50 and Golf Magazine Top 100 Instructor who teaches out of White Deer Run Golf Club near Chicago. I first heard about Todd because of his putter fitting philosophy and then reconnected with him later because of his affiliation with the Golf Academy where he currently serves on the school’s National Advisory Board.
In this week’s tip (below), Todd has a great drill to improve your short game, especially if you’re stuck practicing off mats indoors or out. It’s called the shoelace drill. I always try to transcribe these videos because they only stay up for about a week. Don’t forget, you can always gain access to this tip and more by becoming an Impact Golf Member at toddsones.com:
The low toss shot helps people understand that you’re supposed to keep the ball low and make a motion that supports a lower shot. It’s a great shot to play when you’re greenside off a tight lie in the fairway because as the club comes down, it’s supposed to come down with a shallow angle of descent. Think shallow, like an airplane landing.
You never want to hit a shot off the fairway with a steep angle (of attack) where the club’s coming down too sharply because if you have a tight lie, the club will bounce off the ground and blade the shot. Keep your swing shallow.
The best way to do that is to keep your wrist quiet. The motion of this shot is basically a shoulder turn back and through while keeping the club in front of your body. It’s really simple. Keep your wrist out of this shot. Here are three keys to executing it:
1. Keep it shallow – move the club back and forth with your shoulders.
2. Keep it low – keep the loft off the golf club. When you bring the club back, make sure the face of the golf club stays toward the ball. You don’t want to rotate the club open because that’ll give you too much loft for the shot you want.
3. Descend through impact – this is the most important concept. Make sure the club is descending through impact.
Todd and his staff use a shoeslace to help people practice making sure the club is descending through impact. That simply means the club has to be moving down at the time you hit the golf ball. If the club is moving up, you’ll catch the shoestring. It’s a great drill. Put the shoestring a few inches behind the golf ball. If you’re coming up (or ascending), you’ll catch the shoestring. You can see it and feel it. That’s your bladed or fat shot. When doing this drill, use three wedges.
“We teach people that if you’ve got a short pin, a front pin on the green, to use an L wedge (60 or 58 degrees),” says Todd. “If you’ve got a middle pin, and you’re greenside, use a sand wedge. And then if you’ve got a back pin, use a gap wedge.”
That way, you’re always making basically the same motion keeping things simple and letting the club do the work for you. That should help you when you’re greenside off a tight lie.